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long time in Blackwood

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neil mackay

Member
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162
Location
sydney australia
Its been a long time between posts, a lot of water under the bridge so to speak. I have been turning buts been in fits and starts as the style I do is often best suited to galleries rather than markets, well here in Oz anyway.
Therein lies the problem, galleries, if it aint done in 'oils' or made from clay etc etc it aint art. So I have been moving around various galleries with some success to down right dismal. The problem is I live in a city of 5 million and the serious collector would number in the hundreds and thats too small for any gallery.

So this one I will be looking further a field to market. Its rather small 4.5x4.5" finished with AO and buffed. The wood is a native that comes form an area about hours drive from where I live, Blackwood or Acacia Melanoxylon its is easy to turn and takes a good finish, unless it picks up some silica in the surrounding soil.

Comments, thoughts etc most welcome
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Lovely work. The countering curves create some great visual tension in the piece.

Good luck on finding some better sales venues. I've certainly seen pieces with a lot less technical merit going for a lot in some places. However after having spent a bunch of time looking at this the one thing I'm really sure of is that I don't have a clue what it is that draws in sales at that level. It seems like quite a few folks end up selling the majority to a handful of collectors who decide they like their work, but that's not the only situation either. It does seem like being someplace with high traffic turnover of high dollar clients is generally pretty helpful. Not sure but it sure ought to sell well in my opinion anyway :)
 
I really like this one a lot, Hughie. :clap: The fluted spirals are a cool departure from your usual style (which is definitely your signature). I wish I had some useful advice regarding marketing pieces like this. You're in rarefied air with your art, and it demands a special kind of collector.

We only have a handful of decent galleries around my area. One that I talked to really isn't interested in anything that doesn't hang on a wall. The only 3D art they were interested (aside from a few ceramic pieces) were small (rectangular) wooden trinket boxes, for which they'd be willing to pay about $20 each. Heck, I can't buy the materials for that price. I did find one gallery in Santa Fe that embraces turned wood pieces, particularly large ones. (Being Santa Fe, they're really into Southwestern-style pieces with lots of crushed turquoise inlay, which has been overdone in the turning world in my opinion. But hey...I guess it still sells.) I showed them a few photos of some of my work and they seemed to like what they saw, but I've not yet put the time nor effort into trying to turn something to take to them.
 
Vaughn McMillan said:
I did find one gallery in Santa Fe that embraces turned wood pieces, particularly large ones. (Being Santa Fe, they're really into Southwestern-style pieces with lots of crushed turquoise inlay, which has been overdone in the turning world in my opinion. But hey...I guess it still sells.) I showed them a few photos of some of my work and they seemed to like what they saw, but I've not yet put the time nor effort into trying to turn something to take to them.
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I found a good handful of galleries with substantial amounts of turning in Santa Fe. One was as you say lots of turquoise that one was in the mid 100's to low 1000's range depending (I think there might have been two or three of these but there's some blurring), One was pretty much only pieces from one guy who did super large cottonwood pieces (tons of included bark) he was super proud of them in the mid single digit to low double digit thousands. There was also one that had some really really nice piece more like what you guys are doing, (fine turning, high polish, etc.., that was asking solid (mid 100's) but not unreasonable prices for their work. There was at least one gallery that had a lot of segmented work as well. Those were I believe all downtown. I also spent a fair bit of time in one gallery towards the bottom of gallery row that had some really nicely done alabaster with wood rim/base bowls - the gallery owner there was also super cool to talk to (and seemed interested in possible other similar class of work once we started talking turning.. and waxes.. and bronze maintenance.. :D) - I remember they had a very large bronze globe by the entry. Of course I didn't write any of the names of the galleries down and don't remember what was what... but I think you might want to dig a little deeper into the scene there to see what you can find when you get more ready to do so.
 
Ryan Mooney said:
I found a good handful of galleries with substantial amounts of turning in Santa Fe. One was as you say lots of turquoise that one was in the mid 100's to low 1000's range depending (I think there might have been two or three of these but there's some blurring), One was pretty much only pieces from one guy who did super large cottonwood pieces (tons of included bark) he was super proud of them in the mid single digit to low double digit thousands. There was also one that had some really really nice piece more like what you guys are doing, (fine turning, high polish, etc.., that was asking solid (mid 100's) but not unreasonable prices for their work. There was at least one gallery that had a lot of segmented work as well. Those were I believe all downtown. I also spent a fair bit of time in one gallery towards the bottom of gallery row that had some really nicely done alabaster with wood rim/base bowls - the gallery owner there was also super cool to talk to (and seemed interested in possible other similar class of work once we started talking turning.. and waxes.. and bronze maintenance.. :D) - I remember they had a very large bronze globe by the entry. Of course I didn't write any of the names of the galleries down and don't remember what was what... but I think you might want to dig a little deeper into the scene there to see what you can find when you get more ready to do so.
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That's good info, Ryan. Thanks. I admittedly haven't done a lot of research since I didn't really have the capability to turn again until recently. :thumb:
 
Vaughn McMillan said:
That's good info, Ryan. Thanks. I admittedly haven't done a lot of research since I didn't really have the capability to turn again until recently. :thumb:
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Some interesting comments here. I do have a couple options that I am following up. But as for research being at the bottom of the Pacific its a little tenuous in trying set up a deal at a distance.
But appreciate all thoughts and positive comments, thank you gentlemen
 
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